Note to all control-freaky parents out there: sometimes being a good parent means giving in.
teens
Study: 1 in 3 Americans Arrested By Age 23
The first study to look at the arrest histories of American youth since the 1960s suggests a sharp increase: about one-third of people are cuffed for something more serious than a traffic violation before their early 20s.
Teen Drug Use: Marijuana Up, Cigarettes and Alcohol Down
The latest update to the annual Monitoring the Future survey of drug use in American youth bears mainly good news, at least if your interest is in reducing drug-related harm
Family MattersParenting
Kids Sexting May Not Be as Big a Problem as We Thought
There’s been no shortage of hand-wringing over the menace of “sexting” among kids, but new research finds that parents’ concern may be largely overwrought: only 7% of children ages 10 to 17 created, appeared in or received a …
Brain Changes in Video Gamers: Addiction or Just People Having Fun?
A new study finds changes in brain regions associated with addiction in frequent video gaming teenagers. But the findings raise questions about whether such research is really relevant to the understanding of true addiction.
Q&A: What We Can Learn From the Dutch About Teen Sex
(Updated) Teen birth rates are eight times higher in the U.S. than in Holland. Abortion rates are twice as high. The American AIDS rate is three times greater than that of the Dutch. What are they doing right that we’re not?
Family MattersAIDS
Pediatricians Group Urges Routine HIV Testing for Teens
This week the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement called “Adolescents and HIV Infection.” The title alone garners attention. Teens and HIV?
Teens’ IQ May Rise or Fall Over Time
The brain undergoes more change in adolescence than at any other time of life, save before birth and during infancy. That may help explain why teenagers’ IQ can fluctuate significantly over time, as a new study finds, registering …
Two Questions Can Help Doctors Spot Teen Alcohol Problems
Two questions asked during a regular pediatrician’s visit could help identify youth with drinking problems, according to a national expert group convened by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA), which …
The Spillover Effect: Beware the Explosive Teen
There’s only one thing harder than living in a home with an adolescent — and that’s being an adolescent. The moodiness, the volatility, the wholesale lack of impulse control, all would be close to clinical conditions if they …
New Efforts to Crack Down on Residential Programs for Troubled Teens
The first legislation aimed at regulating residential programs for troubled teens was introduced on Thursday in the House and the Senate. The bill would crack down on hundreds of programs housing thousands of teens, many of which …
Exercise Helps Young Smokers Quit
Quitting smoking is one of the healthiest things a person can do, but it’s also among the hardest, especially for teenage smokers who battle not only addiction but also the social pressure to keep lighting up.
The Half-Baked Teen Brain: A Hazard or a Virtue?
Teenagers have a bad reputation. They’re moody, they thrive on drama. They take risks that terrify their parents and seem blithely unaware of the potential consequences of their actions. The reason for this, as scientists have …